Family

If my 7 year old son is diagnosed with Celiac disease does or should the entire family begin a gluten free diet? How can we make sure he is not seen as "different"?

Steve's response Good questions. My advice based on my family's situation is that we didn't all have to go "gluten free" however, it does help if you switch as much as possible to gluten free. For example, when my son was diagnosed, we would cook seperate pasta. Today we just cook all gluten free pasta for the whole family. You only need to make sure your kitchen is free from cross contamination if you cook both gluten and non gluten food. My website talks in length about this.

As far as how you make sure he is not seen as "different". That's a little difficult at first but its not as big of a deal as you might think. My son at first had a rough time like he couldn't eat pizza at B'day parties or eat the school lunches. But over time his friends and teachers got used to his gluten free diet and they actually would go out of their way to make sure they provided gluten free food for him if there was another social gathering. Celiac Disease awareness has come a long way and today its more common and people aren't seeing it as being very different anymore.